Thursday, July 24, 2008

In an effort to gain control of the State's expenses and its budget, the Governor is moving to a process of budgeting that he calls "Core Mission Budgeting."

It is a self reflecting sort of back to the basics approach that requires every agency to reevaluate the services they are providing and to make sure they are essential to the core mission of the agency. It is a fancy way for making cuts in what is or will be eventually determined as non-essential services.

The Governor is concerned about being able to balance the budget in an orderly fashion and is making preparations to address the continued decreasing revenue, especially from Wall St, facing the State. He is sending the message out through the Division of Budget to brace for some serious budgeting business.

This is not bad a idea for governments to evaluate their services that they provide to the public on a regular basis, not necessarily just when times are tough. The process would be healthy if implemented on a periodically scheduled basis and would always provide a built in correction for government services as some tend to morph over time away from their original intent.

This will not be an easy process and the effort by the Governor is laudable considering he is willing to assume the fiscal responsibility that is long over due in Albany.

Governor Paterson is showing he is up to the task of being Governor in tough times and he has consistently displayed a bipartisan effort that everyone should appreciate, Democrats, Republicans, Independence, Conservatives, et al. should show their support.

UPDATE: This is an excellent article worth the read in the Buffalo News